Skiing
by Queen of the Beasties
Summary: In which Tegan and Turlough get into a bit of a pickle thanks to their bickering and the Doctor decides to have a little fun with it. Written from a prompt I was given for a tumblr Christmas gift exchange.


A/N: I wrote this for a tumblr secret santa gift exchange this year called "Classic Who Secret Santa" and thought I might as well post it here too. The prompt was "_Turlough and Tegan doing something cute together...as friends instead of constant bickering or fighting" _and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!

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><p>"Turlough, if you don't go already I'll toss you off the side of the mountain myself." Tegan folded her arms over her multicolored overcoat, leaning impatiently against one of her poles.<p>

"Just give me a moment. I've never done this before!" Turlough's voice was steady, but his legs trembled as much as they could with each of his feet firmly attached to a ski-shoe in the snow. His chilled cherry-red face was only a few shades off from his hair, the majority of which was hidden beneath a blue knit hat topped with a white bobble.

"For goodness sake; this is the kiddie slope!" Tegan scoffed. "Look, even a nine year old can do it." The Australian pointed with a mitten-clad hand toward the bottom of the slope, where said nine year old had just slowed to a stop at the end of the trail. A lady who must have been his mother awaited him with a hot beverage from the inn near the bottom of the slopes. "Don't tell me you're scared!"

"This is a stupid Earthing sport," Turlough protested, without actually answering the question. "I've already told both you and the Doctor that I didn't want to go…what was it you called this infernal pass-time?"

"Skiing?" offered Tegan.

"Yes, that."

"Why do you insist on being such a killjoy, Turlough? Finally the Doctor gets the coordinates right and we get a proper vacation, and I've been stuck at the top of the kitty slope for the largest portion of it waiting for you to finish sulking and enjoy yourself for once. Look, if you're not going to go anytime soon, move aside so I can."

"Be my guest," said Turlough, and he made a feeble attempt at shimmying off to the side to let Tegan pass. Walking on skis was not a talent he had mastered quite yet; he shifted, wobbled in place, and nearly collapsed backside-first into the snow before Tegan took pity on him and grabbed his shoulder just in time to steady him.

"Just stop. Stop," she insisted. "I'll go around you. It'll be less embarrassing for the both of us."

"Go on then, if you're so talented," the Trion sneered. "Let's see if you're as good as you say you are!"

"Don't mind if I do," the human shot back, her nose in the air. She shuffled up to edge of the slope, and was just about to push off when Turlough grinned from behind her. And pushed her forward with the end of his pole.

Tegan yelped, having been caught off guard. Her arms windmilled in the air as she struggled to stay balanced, resulting in her dropping her poles in the snow. They tumbled down the hill out of reach, forcing Tegan to latch onto the closest thing available - which turned out to be Turlough. He was still snickering in triumphant delight when he realized what was happening.

They were both accelerating down the slope, their skis locked together - Tegan in the front, Turlough in the back. Those fortunate enough to be out of harm's way witnessed an admittedly amusing scene unfold before their eyes; Four skis, four flailing arms, two poles, and two shrieking mouths zoomed past others, mostly children, on the trail, their combined weight doubling their speed. Between struggling to stay upright without her poles for balance and half-strangling Turlough whilst he couldn't escape she shrieked at those in their way to "LOOK OUT!" At the end of the trail parents were quickly scooping their children out of harm's way while those still making their way down the slope in front of them made a mad dash to escape what would have been a nasty collision.

And that wasn't the worst of their problems

"Rabbits!" Tegan announced, and Turlough immediately spotted what was wrong. The inn at the end of the slope was growing larger and larger at an alarming rate, and the two of them were not about to slow down anytime soon to avoid it.

"We're going to crash!" Turlough shouted through the wind, summing up their predicament quite nicely into one sentence.

"And it's all your fault!" Tegan screamed back. "Give me your poles! I might be able to slow us down!"

Turlough handed them over and Tegan immediately skewered the snow with them, using them as breaks, but it was no use. They were going to fast. The wall was mere meters away and getting closer every second. Tegan abandoned her attempt to stop on her own terms and instead shielded her face, bracing for the imminent impact. Turlough followed suit.

They screamed together at the top of their lungs, drowning out what would have been a very familiar noise as a blue police box appeared out of thin air directly between them and their destination that was the solid inn wall.

A man in a cricket jacket and winter hat to replace his usual panama swung open the door and quickly dove out of the way, making way for the incoming projectile that was Tegan and Turlough, who shot straight through the ajar double doors, somehow managed to bypass the console, and continued straight down corridor, where they finally slowed to a miraculously safe stop. And promptly toppled on top of each other in a heap of tangled skis and legs.

The Doctor wasn't far behind them. He dashed back into the TARDIS and down the slippery corridor, skidding to a stop on the trail of melting snow Tegan and Turlough had left in their wake. He watched as they struggled to separate themselves, his arms crossed in indignation.

"I leave you two alone for_ ten minutes_."

"Oi, it was Turlough's fault!" Tegan protested breathlessly as she switched gears in her attempt to disentangle her legs from Turlough's and went directly for the ski shoe itself. "He's the one who pushed me off the side of a _mountain_!"

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic!" Turlough remarked with a mixture of exhaustion and relief, having given up entirely on trying to free himself. "You said it yourself, it's the _kiddie slope_! A _nine year old_ could have done it, didn't you say?" He collapsed against the corridor wall, his hair more than a bit windswept, his hat having been lost somewhere up on the slope. His face somehow glistened bright red with both cold and perspiration. "Besides, if you hadn't panicked and grabbed me we wouldn't have been in this mess."

Tegan, as always, was ready with another retort, and the argument continued for several more minutes. All the while the Doctor stood unspoken above them, his expression cross, although after a while the corners of his mouth began to twitched with amusement.

Tegan, ever observant of these things, turned on him. "What are you smiling about?" she snapped.

"Well, to be perfectly honest," the Doctor said frankly, "you both look incredibly ridiculous."

Tegan fumed, her lip quivering with suppressed rage, but after a few moments of silence Turlough started to chuckle. The Australian rounded on him. "No way _you_ think this is funny!"

"The Doctor's right," the ginger admitted. "Look at us!"

Tegan hesitated, but did finally give their predicament a good look; Her feet were still locked together with his by the tangled mess of skis; From the neck up Turlough looked as though he had just returned from a plane ride with the hatch open the whole time, and Tegan was fairly sure that thanks to getting the front seat the entire descent she looked more snow than Tegan right now.

She couldn't help it. She grinned despite herself. "Don't think this means I'm not still furious with both of you," she she said to them, her voice cracking through suppressed laughter.

"Just another day in the company of Tegan Jovanka," the Doctor quipped, grinning.

"Honestly, I'd be worried if you ever weren't at least a little furious with us, Tegan," the ginger shrugged. "It's how our friendship works. And…I suppose I deserve it. A little." He chuckled some more.

"A_ little_?" Tegan was laughing too hard now to be cross, but she punched him on the arm nonetheless. "And _you_!" She rounded on the Doctor again. "You're the one who left us in the first place. Where were you?"

"Well, I had thought we could all use a hot beverage after being out in the cold," the Doctor said, slightly defensive. "I was on my way outside to give them to you when I saw your…predicament. So I made straight for the TARDIS and relocated it here. At the very least I saved us from being responsible for some serious property damages. I would have thought a thank you would be in order…"

"Help us get us out of this mess and I'll think about it," Tegan replied, having returned to her usual vexed tones.

"Hmm," the Doctor pondered. "No, I don't think I will." He slowly began to step back, toward the console room. And away from his friends, who were still very much stuck together.

"What do you mean you won't?" said Turlough. The Time Lord was stepping further away, opening the console room door. "Doctor!"

"Doctor, get back here now or I swear I'll - !"

"What, Tegan?" the Doctor said, poking his head back through the door. "Push me down the kiddie slope?" He grinned broadly. "I have the hot chocolate I bought you both At the inn. I'll bring it by in a bit to help you pass the time. And maybe perhaps a puzzle? Love a good puzzle!" With that he disappeared behind the door.

Tegan, once again, was fuming. Turlough looked panicked, as if afraid of what Tegan would do to him since the Doctor was currently out of reach. "_Doctor…_" he pleaded.

"Think of it as a chance to bond!" the Doctor offered from the console room. Then, more quietly, "And a chance for me to get some repairs done without worrying about you two getting into trouble. Seems like a lot to ask for these days…"

"_Doctor_!" his friends bellowed in unison, their voices reverberating off the TARDIS walls.

The Doctor grinned alone in the console room, despite feeling a small pang of guilt. _It's payback for driving me up the wall with all that constant bickering_, he told himself and, _At least they aren't fighting now, are they?_

It was long after Tegan and Turlough had been freed from their skis and each other that the Doctor heard another bicker out of them. It might have even been a record. Being stuck together for over an hour seemed to have been almost like the winter sport version of the "Get Along" T-shirt. The next morning at breakfast was the first in…well, _ever _ that didn't involve Turlough making a snide remark about Tegan's choice in breakfast cereal and Tegan sending one right back about Turlough's choice in bird-headed madmen for mates. The Doctor couldn't believe it. For the first time in history, Tegan and Turlough were atually_ getting along._

He knew that neither of them would ever in a million years admit to it now, but as the three of them ate in a quiet, content silence that the Doctor hadn't been able to enjoy since Nyssa left, he was sure he wasn't alone in thinking that ski trip idea of Tegan's might not have been a bad idea after all.


End file.
